Why is it always the front line workers that are made redundant? Why not some of the fluff once in awhile? I dare speculate that our parks get far more use, and are more important to our community….than say an art gallery? Perhaps a museum? Maybe even a library?

Beautification of PG. Now that is a challenge. Is this for real or just another city hall dream.

Parks are more important than a library? I know where that fluff is that you’re talking about — it’s between your ears.

We are surrounded by wilderness. If it’s of no use to you unless it’s manicured like a golf course, then that is just a flaw of your thinking.

Yes, who needs a library? We have IBooks….you want to read or research use the Internet! Why should we spend so much for a house of books? The public library is a dinosaur, do you know what happened to the school libraries? They shut them down because they are financial albatrosses!

PG could market itself eventually as the “Dandelion Capital of BC”. Watching for pot holes AND looking at the dandelions. What a challenge!

What am I missing here. By “reassigning” an “equipment operator and a seasonal labourer” you say service levels will be affected. Where is the $125,000 savings ??

“reduce the service levels of boulevard and turf maintenance which would mainly affect sports groups”

Okay, longer grass in boulevards should mean less water will be required to maintain the grass, so where there is irrigation, the irrigation cycles may be able to be rduced.

As a result of less mowing during the dandelion season, the flowers will have a longer period to allow them to go to seed and blow the seeds around the neighbourhood. Again, if there is an expert out there to tell us whether that intuitive observation of mine is true, and if it is, whether there is actually a geometric increase rather than a simple straight line relationship to addiional time between mowing.

As far as sports turf goes, could someone plays soccer write some information about the effect of longer grass on the game. Is there a standard?

I would think that it would slow down the game from the point of view of as well as soccer ball rolling on the turf and even frequency of tripping. So,shorter turf would allow for more of a passing game while longer grass (such as 3″ instead od 1.5 to 2″) would likely force more of an aerial game.

Also, I think “turf” is becoming more commonly used to meaning artificial turf rather than natural grass turf.

Then there is the lawn bowling green. Less mainenance there is will have a major impact. I realize most people who use that are seniors. So who cares? Right?

scrap the new cop shop, spend the money on roads

Thie park business is another sorry mess. We were in a park in onother city. The grasss was four inches long and there wasnt a weed in sight. It was pro;perly managed which cut back on the maintenance and the weed control. And would also need less water.

In Pg The grass is sheared almost to the ground because if it wasnt the weeds would take over. I saw them cutting dry grass on Ospika Bld in July. So whats wrong here?
Cheers

“As far as sports turf goes, could someone plays soccer write some information about the effect of longer grass on the game. Is there a standard” .. theres more to the soccer fields than the playing of the game. The maintenance, such as putting down lines is much much harder when the grass is left to get too long, not to mention when the grass is too long, it then has to be swept after being cut, which actually increases the workload and equipment costs. Cutting the grass twice a week in the growing season, actually saves money.

I guess it would be fair then if they cut back on the number of times they flood the ice in the rinks…….just sayin’…

…. just sayin’ …. eh??? LOL

I gather the point is to treat everyone equally which is a reasonable point to make.

Problem is the City deals with these things in isolation of the whole picture.

The mayor gets an assistant and council all get raises but the city of PG gets cuts and potholes.
Ms. Green I hope you enjoy your short tenure as the mayor as I will never vote for you again.
Your messed up!

I know this fact, corporations who seek managers or a CEO to run a company require at least a business degree. I am seeing that our city does not even have anyone with economics 101. Maybe a couple more assistants should be hired to open the limo doors for the mayor.

I wonder what it costs the city to have the Cougars as a tenant in the CN center. City hall is very silent on that topic.
So we cut park services to save a hundred thousand bucks but spent millions buying downtown properties, administration buildings, gas fired energy system, WOW. What is wrong with this picture.

Maybe just give back the Nissan Leaf and cut the grass.

Shouldn’t the soccer fields be maintained by the user fees? Approximately 2500 youth soccer players @ $125 a pop is over $300,000 in fees. No idea how many adults pay to play but I know there are a few.

Coaches are unpaid volunteers so there is no cost there; jerseys have an ad on them so their cost should be minimal. Where does the money go? Or, in typical city fashion, are we employing half a dozen managers?

Find out if the city’s new electric car has an optional lawnmower attachment. Who drives it anyway? Does it have 4X4 capabilities? Two shock absorbers on each wheel?

Why not take back the 30% wage increase for council and the mayor and use the saved money to buy push lawnmowers. Give each member of council a lawnmower and a park or blvd to cut each day. Makes sense to me. It would save the taxpayers moneys and the alderpeople would be doing something useful for a change.

Someone touched on this before.(sorry ..one too many)….I think what we are witnessing is an inner struggle at the city between the old status quo and the new regime. The quo is saying you want to cut back , well right off we will start with things people will quickly notice like boulevards and sport fields. Where the heck is the “Communications Manager” these days. That position alone could be a savings or re-assignment of around $100,000.

It would be a shame if the soccer park is affected by any cutbacks. I was involved a few years ago when the soccer provincials were held in PG. The positive feedback from out of town coaches, parents and players about the condition of our fields was great. They were actually quite surprised as PG isn’t always viewed as a place to venture to. Its hard enough to get teams from the mainland up here for any sport so lets not jeopardize our sport fields in any way.

The person who is in charge of roads was in charge of parks before and that is when the parks started to go downhill.
Examples:
1: mowing the grass so close to the gound that it creates a dust storm during mowing
2: July 1st brown extremely short grass in Ft George park and by the end of the day people had destroyed what was left of the lawn
3: took tourists to see the gardens at Connought Hill as was shocked to see weeds not flowers in certain areas and weeds mixed with flowers in the main garden

Somehow during that time the parks was able to build ball fields that professional teams would love to play in and the one on N Nechako had massive landscaping.

I agree that maybe the users of the soccer fields should look after the fields as they do not allow the general public to use them. Too many times we use tax money to build and upkeep sport fields and then have it used by private groups that make money from them. (CN Centre and Cougars are another example and the cost to us for the Courgars is very high)